Microsoft evangelist Jeff Sandquist says, “I’ve turned off my Tivo.” Me too.
Last Friday morning, I found out that Cox Cable here in Phoenix now offers high-definition digital video recorders. By Friday afternoon, I had one in my hands, and by Friday evening I was merrily recording HD content.
Cox uses a Scientific Atlanta 8300, which is unlike the Comcast boxes Jeff Sandquist uses in Seattle (my friend Michael in LA is going to get one of those models today). So far, I like it a lot, especially the two-tuner capability so I don’t have to choose between “Lost” and “The West Wing.” Observations:
- The recording capacity is much less than my old TiVo, which I had upgraded to a capacity of 180 hours or so. Fortunately, this box has a SATA connector in the back that supposedly allows me to connect an external drive to immediately bump up storage capacity. A 200GB SATA drive with external enclosure should be here by the end of the week.
- Picture quality is superb, although I noticed last night some visual artifacts and audio dropout. Only a minor annoyance, but still…
- TiVo has better series recording options, including the ability to specify first-run shows only (no reruns) and automatic conflict resolution.
- My video distribution system still works. In fact, I can stream the recorded high-definition signals to a TV in the other room and the picture is impressively sharp and clear, and it appears in the HD letterbox format.
- After four years, it’s nice to finally be able to see real high-definition content on my high-definition TV!
- I’ve officially crossed into remote control overload. The Cox remote for the HD-DVR doesn’t recognize my Pioneer receiver, so I can’t use the DVR’s remote to control the system volume, and my MX-500 Universal Remote Control doesn’t have a preprogrammed code for the Cox remote. So I’ll have to get out the manual and “train” the Universal remote this week.
For now, I have the TiVo box hooked up to basic cable, and it’s still merrily recording away. We’ll see how much use it gets in the next few weeks. My guess is you’ll see it on Ebay before too long.
I also set up Windows Media Center 2005 over the weekend. Although it doesn’t do HD, it’s still very, very impressive, much more so than I expected. I’ll have lots more to write about it later.
Ed Bott 
I understand help may be on the way for one small bit of that remote control overload. Comcast (and others, I presume) will soon be rolling out new technology called, simply enough, Cable Card.
I’m told all new high-end TVs will soon come with an onboard slot to insert a Cable Card and voila, no need for a cable box. The cable signal will go directly into the set, where the card will allow your TV to do the necessary descrambling and decoding (including high-def)– hence, you will actually be able to use your TV’s original remote control. (And supposedly, get even better pq, because your quality TV will be doing the hard decoding work, instead of the the mass-produced, cheapy set-top cable boxes we currently use.)
(Of course, all this may be moot if we want to use our new HD-DVRs, but still, it’s something)
Tivo, one of the great ideas for humanity. But then came DRM. I just hope that Tivo won’t unilaterally smother itself and force us all toward DVR, with which the cable companies will continue to restrict bit by bit.
I’m in a Comcast neighborhood and we use the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 digital video recorder. It is worse than TIVO in many ways, but overall has the huge advantages of being cheaper (by far) and easier (both to use and install). Some have called these boxes TIVO-killers, and they may just well be.
FYI, these boxes do have the option of first-run-only recording (sounds like your cable firmware needs updating), but they’re inferior to TIVO in other ways, such as when your show is delayed 20 minutes, TIVO might know this, but the cable boxes will begin recording 20 minutes late and end 20 minutes early. And TIVO has far greater capacity.
But all such distinctions pale, especially in any world related to computers, when you add in the free, zero-hassle, overnight-replacement comfort of renting rather than owning. The fact that the rental is cheaper, too, than the owning, completely devastates the case for TIVO. (TIVO’s program guide, alone, costs about what Comcast charges for the whole DVR setup including equipment.)
One more thing: It might interest you to know that there is an entire Yahoo discussion group devoted entirely to the SA8000 digital recorder. It’s here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/explorer_8000/
How did the second sata drive work out? I just got a Scientific Atlanta 8300 and would love to add a second hard drive. I’m finding it very hard to get info on this.
Thanks,
Bill
Alas, Cox here in Phoenix hasn’t enabled the SATA port (and I suspect they’re like most other cable companies). I called and asked them about it, and the tech said it was the first he had heard anyone ask for this. He said they were getting more requests to have the Firewire ports enabled.
The standard drive fills up pretty darn quick…